Archive for January 10, 2013

Newscast Studio writes about CNN’s continued use of VR environments and gives it a thumbs up with caveats. Having not seen it lately, I can’t judge. I will say that CNN at least has continued to use technology it bought and paid for. The same can’t be said for NBC/MSNBC which had cutting edge VR put in four years ago in a separate area for the 08 Election and rarely used it after. NBC/MSNBC was the first to really roll this out and they’ve sat on their hands and watched as other networks passed them by.

The technology allows for some cool reporting techniques, but oddly CNN continues to feel the need to use snappy camera moves for it, almost like you’re watching a spy movie. Foreman will be talking about a chart, then a camera will gitterly shake and pan to the floor.

While we applaud the use of this expensive technology for times other than the election, it still needs a bit more refinement from the major networks… or they should just search on YouTube and see how European stations are skillfully using it.

White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a factually incorrect response Wednesday to the White House petition to deport British-born CNN host Piers Morgan, wrongly claiming that Morgan, who has launched repeated televised attacks on the Second Amendment, is protected from deportation by the First Amendment.

Treacher:

In related news, Morgan has also maneuvered the White House into providing yet more evidence that they don’t know anything about the Constitution, U.S. history, or pretty much anything else. Patrick Howley reports:

Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First. President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. However, the Constitution not only guarantees an individual right to bear arms, but also enshrines the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press — fundamental principles that are essential to our democracy. Americans may disagree on matters of public policy and express those disagreements vigorously, but no one should be punished by the government simply because he or she expressed a view on the Second Amendment — or any other matter of public concern.

Nowhere in Carney’s response to the petition does he ‘claim’ that Morgan was protected from deportation by the First Amendment. Howley just plain made that part up and Treacher apparently liked what Howley was saying so he fell in line. All Carney did was make an argument that because someone voiced an opinion on the second Amendment doesn’t mean they ‘should be’ punished for it. To equate that line of thinking with what Howley and Treacher wrote is….well…insane.

If Tucker Carlson was really serious about starting a conservative alternative to the liberal internet media, he’s still got his work cut out for him. Allowing his company’s staffers to pen outright falsehoods is not a very good counterweight to the liberal media establishment Carlson wants to undermine. Dubious propaganda masquerading as the reporting of facts makes for a poor method of achieving that goal.

Inside the Beltway, Todd’s hour-long MSNBC show is widely seen as the most important hour on television, coupling a concise summary of the executive and legislative agendas with deeper dives and insights into larger political stories and trends. It is the place where, in a matter of minutes, you can learn not only what’s happening in Washington, but what’s “actually” happening in Washington.

“The ambition was always to be the insider politlical show of record,” Todd, who is also NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent, told POLITICO today. “I was trying to make this show for Washington, about Washington.”

In 2012, ‘Rundown’ rated number one in Washington for its hour. Despite airing on MSNBC, a liberal network, it has achieved a bipartisan audience among the local political establishment –largely because it’s added-value is insight, not ideology.

“There are all types of ways to have a point of view. Sometimes that’s ideological, sometimes it’s subject-based, sometimes it’s what I do here: which is passionate coverage of politics,” Todd said. “Phil Griffin, [the president of MSNBC], knows that a show’s success, it’s ability to draw an audience, doesn’t always have to be ideologically based. It can be based on passion.”

Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein writes about Nielsen struggling with what constitutes a “household” in the 21st century…

If a viewer watches a TV show on a tablet, should that be reflected in its Nielsen rating?

That’s a question at the heart of a complicated decision Nielsen hopes to make by the end of the first quarter regarding a new definition for what constitutes a TV household.

The new definition is almost certain, according to sources, to include for the first time viewing on TV sets that show video via broadband connections, whether from a device like Apple TV or directly into the set itself. In addition, that viewing would not have to come in the form of linear channels, which would open up measurement to on-demand options like episodes posted on a broadcaster’s website.

But what is currently being debated is whether homes that restrict their viewing to smartphones or tablets will also be considered TV households. Those devices may have to wait until their measurement can be integrated into the TV ratings system.